2012 Tacoma Doublecab work truck

[hornytoad]

Troubleshooting...

About 400 miles ago I did the first oil change on the tacoma (at around 1k miles). Using a toyota filter/oil change everything went smoothly until I decided to check the drive-shaft/chassis greasing.

The front stop points had no grease on them" ok not that big a deal" but the front and rear drive-shafts were dry from the factory. It took 4-6 pumps of a good grease gun in each zerk fitting to get air out of the system and to start seeing grease come out of the gasket. I guess Dana just assembles them dry and ships them to the Toyota plant who then installs them in the truck and expects the dealership to finish the clean and prep of the truck. Argg....

Also I took the first highway spin with the Thule "platform" and the wind noise is horrible. The bars and airfoil are quite but the flat wood has a nasty rumbling harmonic that seems to be coming between the cab and the bed. I will take the platform off this week and try some damping/airfoil tricks to the underside of the platform.


On a good note I just got off the phone with CES in Bend Oregon. Looks like I have a road trip to take this winter!

 

[hornytoad]

Roofracks...again

So companies like Thule and Yakima really do know what that are talking about, after a hiking trip with the wife and out dog I realized that we had a LOUD rumble behind the cab of the taco. Between 45-80 mph the noise was reverberating though the cab and made conversation difficult.

Looking at my "system" I discovered that I had moved the feet on the cab rearwards aprox 1 foot due to the 10 ft roof line (with topper)and 8ft plywood "deck". Lining up the rear of the deck with the topper made asthetic sense.

Re adjusting the front feet to the factory specs and messing with all four bars to match my carefully machined decking shifter the entire deck forwards 11 inches almost eliminated wind noise (there is some but not as bad as it was). And required taking the deck on and off twice wich is doable when your working solo but is not fun.

And then I decide to screw with it and add some sealing foam in between the deck and the bars to "further dampen the deck harmonics".
I am an idiot. The 1/4" thick foam added additional wind noise and now the whole deck can "sing" in the wind and I now have a different pitch wind noise....

So tomorrow I rip off the deck again pull the foam and pick up some more lock tight for the 24 bolts that hold this mess together and live with whatever noise it makes for a while. The deck will have to be redone at some point and I seriously thinking about grade A furniture hardwood with a 4x9 size. The CHEAP Lowes hardwood plywood is already coming apart.

On a positive note the gas tank is paid for and my trick Xtend & Climb 8.5 foot ladder came in today!!!!

 

[bat]

Nice truck kind of partial to the expo white myself, what did you use for the extra tail gate seal

 

[hornytoad]

The tacoma looks good in white, I would however swap in a heartbeat for the desert tan or green that the FJ comes in. White does hides scratches better though (I drive in lots of mesquite groves). I'm still torn on wheel color but the black is growing on me.

The tailgate is sealed with sticky backed foam tape, it is still vented but is seems to be keeping the dust down. Time to drink another cup of coffee, go searching for the blue locktight and take off that $%$$##@ deck again.

 

[4RunAmok]

I knew someone who had "pressurized" their bed area to keep dust out. A positive-pressure system of some kind.

 

[hornytoad]

And the road test says.....

BUSTED!

Waysurf called it on the 4x8 plywood twisting off road. The platform actually pulled off a Thule crossbar yesterday on some mild wheeling. Also the wind noise is horrible, watching my wife grimace as we were heading out of town and hearing the "drumming/whistle" for over an hour was embarrassing. 4lbs of under body coating and foam isolation pads did not help the wind tunnel/drum effect that is caused by the steel stressed bars/stressed plywood/sheet metal roof. SIGH

For now I am going to remove the plywood deck and potentially will remove the cab crossbars due to wind noise. Maybe my ears are sensitive but with the mileage I drive on the highway, every little thing starts to drive me bonkers after 1/2 an hour at 75-80mph. I might just leave the cross bars on the back for large loads and return the front rack system.

On the plus side the 245 75R17 BFG combo rocks, the stock mudflaps caught a bit on some trees/rocks but a little trimming should have that handled. No dragging bumpers or factory skid plates. However I do see a set of Bud's aluminum skid plates in my future and a set of sliders. NM is too rocky to leave a transfer case/body panel to chance.

 

[hornytoad]

On the road again....

Not much to update, changed the engine oil over to synthetic, de-badged the doors so my company graphics look better and getting everything ready for the Summer/Fall field schedule.



Is it just me or has the gas mileage on Taco's gone down lately?

My former work truck was a 2010 6speed manual w/ access cab and a small RIDGED toolbox in the back at got 17mpg on the highway.

I have gotten two or three 17mpg tanks with most of the fill ups being 15.5 mpg. Hopefully this road trip will give Toyota a chance to prove me wrong, hell I'm not even getting the EPA estimates with cruise control and an unloaded truck.

 

[Clutch]

Might get more mpg's after the motor breaks in...Tacos are begging for a diesel...the gasser mileage is rather sad for the size of the truck.

Have you looked at the Ford Eco-Boost, my buddy gets 22.3 HWY 18-19 City....

 

[ericvs]

Have you thought about building a bigger wind fairing/deflector in the front? The one you have on there is not at wide at the platform itself. If you had one that spanned the width of the platform (and 'hid' the towers and most of the bars) I think that would help with the wind noise. The one in this pic is bigger than you would need, but you can see he has his entire rack hidden behind the fairing (or wind scoop as it referred to on this site). I got this pic from this thread:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/37607-Homemade-Roofracks/page8?highlight=wind+fairing
also check page 8 for a wind fairing as well.
If your fairing followed the plane of your windscreen up and just over the height of the platform, I think that would help reduce/eliminate your noise issue. Please note, this will not help the offroad flex issue :sombrero:

 

[Clutch]

Please note, this will not help the offroad flex issue :sombrero:

Flex is easy to deal with, just build it in two sections, or a ladder rack style.

 

[robert]

The bed and cab are going to flex too much for you to use a solid system like that; even just going down a bumpy road you can watch the flex in the side view mirrors. You could always separate it into two pieces with bracket on the ends so you could drop a filler piece in. Also you're going to get enough air moving between the cab and bed that a solid surface is going to make a ton of noise. If you have a sliding rear window open it while driving down the road and you'll see how much air and road noise there is between the two. As noted, your wind deflector probably isn't doing a ton to help either.

 

[hornytoad]

kermit - looked at the fords when truck shopping the taco is the smallest double cab pickup that I could live with. Plus the Eco boost isn't avaliable in a double cab 4x4. I was really impressed by the 2012 turbo diesel that Ford put in the F250 but I didn't like driving a small building around.

613duramax- I looked at thule stuff for a sightly wider fairing and the 44" (which is on there) is the best fit. With their new plexiglass/mounting I guess I could build a new center section and make it 6" wider or so and clip everything on it. hmmmm you might be on to something

robert - yeah the wind noise/echo was intense for now I am running just the bars and ditching the platform idea. I would be neat for photo taking but that was the main idea for it. The bars will be perfect for picking up fencing supplies, well casing, conduit, 2x4's ect...

I'm going to be shaking things down on this trip and will see what else needs to be moved/stored somewhere. I'm thinking 1 or 2 1/2 bed length shelves in the back and maybe a first aid/fire extinguisher mounted on the roof inside the windoors.

 

[Clutch]

kermit - looked at the fords when truck shopping the taco is the smallest double cab pickup that I could live with. Plus the Eco boost isn't avaliable in a double cab 4x4. I was really impressed by the 2012 turbo diesel that Ford put in the F250 but I didn't like driving a small building around.

.

Thanks.

You better tell my buddy Josh, who has a double cab eco-boost 4X4 that they don't make one...

Not his but you get the idea...

 

[hornytoad]

I knew that gas mileage was going to be a crap problem. Range being the biggest concern with efficiency just being the sand in my shorts (irritating but not life threatening). I bought the truck knowing that I was going to have to live with gas cans or spring for a new tank. After reading the post and following up with auxiliary gas tanks, can mounting, plumbing problems and CEL problems I called up Shayne at Custom Exhaust Specialties in Bend and had him build me one of their 35 gallon tanks. The serious downside is the time needed to go up to Bend OR and have the tank installed. That will be done this winter when field work winds down and I can con a few friends into driving up/ back with me. So now I have to live with the 250-300 mile range.....

Seriously Toyota??? My rental jeep wrangler unlimited had a 400 mile range stock! (with 19mpg) I still had to fill up the truck daily but I could rest a little easier knowing that I could go look at a project two counties away and not be stuck in the middle of no where NM.

Where is the 25mpg small pickup??? Oh yeah the last one of those was built in 1985 - SA front end, manual hubs 22RE fuel injected motor.

 

[ericvs]

613duramax- I looked at thule stuff for a sightly wider fairing and the 44" (which is on there) is the best fit. With their new plexiglass/mounting I guess I could build a new center section and make it 6" wider or so and clip everything on it. hmmmm you might be on to something

what about a whole new fairing?
Check this dudes (I know it is a car, but it is a pretty nice homemade fairing.)